Raid on the Sun: Inside Israel's Secret Campaign that Denied Saddam the Bomb

From the earliest days of his dictatorship, Saddam Hussein had vowed to destroy Israel. So, when France sold Iraq a top-of-the-line nuclear reactor in 1975, the Israelis were justifiably concerned, especially when they discovered that Iraqi scientists had already formulated a secret program to extract weapon-grade plutonium from the reactor, a first critical step in creating an atomic bomb.

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Publisher's Summary

From the earliest days of his dictatorship, Saddam Hussein had vowed to destroy Israel. So, when France sold Iraq a top-of-the-line nuclear reactor in 1975, the Israelis were justifiably concerned. The reactor formed the heart of a huge nuclear plant situated twelve miles from Baghdad, 1,100 kilometers from Tel Aviv. By 1981, the reactor was on the verge of becoming "hot," and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin knew he would have to confront its deadly potential. He turned to Israeli Air Force commander General David Ivry to secretly plan a daring surgical air strike on the reactor, a never-before contemplated mission that would prove to be one of the most remarkable military operations of all time.

Written with the full and exclusive cooperation of the Israeli Air Force high command, General Ivry (ret.), and all of the eight mission pilots (including Ilan Ramon, who became Israel's first astronaut and tragically perished in the shuttle Columbia disaster), Raid On the Sun tells the extraordinary story of how Israel plotted the unthinkable: defying its U.S. and European allies to eliminate Iraq's nuclear threat. In the tradition of Black Hawk Down, journalist Rodger Claire re-creates a gripping tale of personal sacrifice and survival, of young pilots who trained in America on the then-new, radically sophisticated F-16 fighter-bombers, then faced a nearly insurmountable challenge: how to fly the 1,000-plus-kilometer mission to Baghdad and back on one tank of fuel; he recounts Israeli intelligence's incredible "black ops" to sabotage construction on the French reactor and eliminate Iraqi nuclear scientists; and he gives readers a pilot's-eye view of the action on June 7, 1981, when the planes roared off a runway on the Sinai Peninsula for the first successful destruction of a nuclear reactor in history.

What the Critics Say

"A stunning eye-opener, shocking you with the realization of the enormous service the Israeli Air Force rendered the free world with its 1981 attack on Saddam Hussein's nuclear facility. Claire went right to the source, the Israeli pilots who flew the mission, to tell in colorful detail the full story of this historic strike. (Walter Boyne, author of Operation Iraqi Freedom: What Went Right, What Went Wrong and Why)

I knew very little about the destruction of the nuclear station Osiraq but this book brought history to life. The Israeli's didn't want to take a chance with their security and took matter into their own hands. It was incredible to understand the intelligence and chain of command and desperation involved in these maneuvers.
What I really didn't know till after listening to this book was that Ilan Ramon who was one of the pilots on this mission was one in the same as the Ilan Ramon that was killed in Space Shuttle Columbia in Feb/03. The description of each of the men and their superiors who were involved in this very delicate operation was truly enlightening. It was hard to put the ipod down. The narrator Adam Grupper read very well too. I came across this book because I was looking for something he read after I heard him read The Lincoln Lawyer. Although he didn't need to use different accents in this book, he reads with conviction and excitment in his voice. This book was an excellent retelling of history. A must listen!

Is it hypocritical for Israel to have its own nuclear weapons and deny the Arab world the same, as they did when they destroyed the Osirak nuclear center in the early 1980's? Only through the lens of moral relativism. This strike was an early blow in the global war on terror, a wildly brave tooth-pulling of a brutal dictator by the region's only liberal democracy, an absolute victory of right over wrong.

Still, it was harshly condemned at the time. All that is here, along with the details of the mission preparation and an inside look at the political to-and-fro that accompanied it within Israel. Great reading.

The book was too short. I wanted another two or three hours with more details about the mission and the pilots' lives. I felt like I was flying with the pilots as they flew the mission. Give us the unabridged version.

This has been my favorite audible book. It has historical detail, adventure, technical details and has excellent narration and sound quality. It's also a good length for an audio book--not overly wordy.

This is a part of history that is covered thoroughly and objectively in this book. Occasionally I found the blow by blow descriptions of events a bit tedious, but overall, it was good. The author places the incident well in the historical context, plus it connects to events in the news today. The narrator mispronounces some words, hence the lower rating. I hadn't realized it was an abridgement until the end, but it does explain that some sentences seemed awkward. It's not written extremely well, but it gets the information across if you pay attention.

great story telling. military channel aired a one hour program called "Raid on the Reactor" a few days ago (approx. april 9th, 2010.) it was about this very event. it included interviews of the author and many of the surviving pilots. the book of course is much more detailed, but the program is a nice adendum to anyone who enjoyed the book and would like to see the men who pulled off this incredible mission talk about it in their own words. Don't mess with Israel.

It's hard to believe this is a true story. It reads like a cloak and dagger / action movie. The book is well written, and it plays back and forth between the day of the mission and the events of years earlier leading up to that point.

Any additional comments?

After reading this book, I thought this would be a great premise for a movie. It's exciting and amazing enough that they wouldn't (and shouldn't) need to embellish any part of it.

Then I realized that they did make a move out of it... in a way. One of the pilots recorded extended segments in his HUD camera during the mission. This and the video from the other pilots during the raid are available online. It was really interesting to read the book, then later see the actual footage (including the one pilot who missed).

The book tells the story of the raid on the Osirak reactor in Iraq in 1982.
The story itself reads like a thriller. The build up of the suspens is very good. You know the outcome but still you want to read the whole story.

My husband and I both loved this book. No one could make this up! The book is well narrated, the account rivetting. I've listened twice, and wouldn't mind listening again...a true story of courage, training, and skill.

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